The present invention relates to a width-adjustable carrier frame usable in household appliances, particularly in cooking and baking ovens, for receiving and supporting a grilling rack, a tray, a dish, a cooking or baking sheet, or the like.
Width-adjustable frying or grilling racks are known, as shown in (German Patent Document DE-GM 89 15 074). A certain width adjustment can be fixed by locking devices.
This means that the change of the width of the frying or grilling rack can only be in steps.
In German Patent Document DE-GM 88 05 174, a width adjustable baking sheet with U-shaped outside bows can also be held in a desired width adjustment by locking devices.
In U.S. Patent Document U.S. Pat. No. 2,015,389, a refrigerator rack is shown, where tube-shaped cross-members, in the area of their ends, carry spring-loaded headless screws which engage in wall-side recesses of a refrigerator. After the spring-loaded headless screws were threaded into the wall-side recesses, a final fixing can be achieved by a tightening of nuts.
Although such a construction permits a continuous width adjustment of the refrigerator rack, the mounting or demounting of such a refrigerator rack requires very high expenditures. Specifically, all four headless screws have to be inserted into the recesses and four nuts have to be correspondingly tightened or released in order to mount or demount the refrigerator rack.
In addition, a refrigerator rack designed in this manner can be used only when the walls of the refrigerator are equipped with corresponding recesses for the headless pins.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a carrier frame of the above-mentioned type which, while it can be easily handled, can be used in household appliances with different interior width measurements and, as required, can also be secured against being unintentionally pulled out.
According to the invention, the carrier frame consists of as at least two cross members with tube-type front-side end areas and of two approximately U-shaped carrying bows whose free ends project into the tube-type end areas and in that at least one carrying bow is continuously adjustable relative to the cross members by means of a worm drive.
A carrier frame designed in this manner can be comfortably adapted to interiors of different widths of household appliances by operating the worm drive; specifically, a continuous adaptation can be achieved in a simple manner.
If required, the carrier frame can also be pressed onto the interior walls of a household appliance by the worm drive and can therefore be force-lockingly fixed and thus sufficiently secured against an unintentional pulling-out.
These and other aspects of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention, when considered in conjunction with accompanying drawing.